Windows 8 Pro Upgrade to cost $39.99 • Hacker News Board

Re: Windows 8 Pro Upgrade to cost $39.99

#201

Post by greedo » Tue, Jul 03, 2012, 9:01 PM UTC

Mythbusters wrote: post #163

greedo wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, three years after its release, Win7 has finally begun to overtake WinXP, an 11 year old operating system. And this article is quick to point out that Win7 may not yet have a true majority of PC users yet.

Who said anything about Windows 7 being adopted quickly? I was calling out the wrong information that OP was spreading about many people not having left XP.

You posted a link that purported to dispute the OP's idea that users were still on XP. Yet the link you posted actually reinforced that a huge number were still on XP...

Re: Windows 8 Pro Upgrade to cost $39.99

#202

Post by greedo » Tue, Jul 03, 2012, 9:05 PM UTC

krolley wrote: post #178

greedo wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To mythbusters: Yes, when you combine a non-PC (the iPad) with the PC market there is growth. When you subtract the non-PC from the "PC market" there is negative growth. Trying to make the iPad's success somehow a sign that the PC market is growing is the funniest thing I've read on HN to date. And sure, the Surface might invigorate Microsoft, and prove a worthy competitor to the iPad, both in terms of sales, as well…

The lines will blur anyway. A Microsoft Surface combined with a TypeCover (assuming it works well), could be used as both a tablet and a laptop at different times. Does it then contribute to PC sales or tablet sales?

Blurring is what Microsoft hopes to happen. But I don't see any evidence that this hope will be satisfied. It's like crossing a camel with an ostrich and hoping it can fly.

Microsoft failed in previous tablet efforts by trying to graft the desktop environment onto a touchscreen. Failed miserably, and not because of hardware immaturity. In contrast, Apple has succeeded immensely by discarding the desktop metaphor and embracing the touch environment exclusively. Microsoft is trying to straddle the two environments solely to prop up Windows, not because it's a better UX. This to me, dooms it to failure, just as Microsoft failed in its previous tablet ventures.

Re: Windows 8 Pro Upgrade to cost $39.99

#203

Post by runeks » Tue, Jul 03, 2012, 11:52 PM UTC

greedo wrote: post #149

jmj4 wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft is eyeing consumers with this announcement, and once consumers switch, they will adapt to the new interface. Once consumers adapt to the new interface, the overhead that you are talking about decreases, and companies can roll out Windows 8 without totally killing productivity. MS is betting the house on Windows 8, but they know there will be growing pains. This $40 upgrade strategy is one way to mitigate th…

And what's to say that consumers will switch? It's not like the PC market is experiencing any growth. Sure consumers who feel they have to own a Windows PC will upgrade when they're existing hardware dies, but I'm skeptical that users will be queuing up to by a Windows 8 PC on launch day. And home users just don't upgrade existing hardware in any meaningful quantity.

> It's not like the PC market is experiencing any growth.

Do you have a source for this? I'm pretty sure it's growing. Just not as fast as tablets/smart phones.

Re: Windows 8 Pro Upgrade to cost $39.99

#204

Post by derekerdmann » Wed, Jul 04, 2012, 2:42 AM UTC

mkr-hn wrote: post #171

derekerdmann wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anything you need a Run dialog for, you can just press the Windows key and start typing. Everything in your path shows up, with "recently used" suggestions on the right side, and quick feedback if you mistype something.

Sometimes the box in the start menu acts weird, like not understanding what I mean by Desktop\. The run dialog offers a popup with possible paths.

If I need something from my user directory, I always add ~\Desktop, just like Linux.

Re: Windows 8 Pro Upgrade to cost $39.99

#205

Post by shinratdr » Wed, Jul 04, 2012, 5:31 AM UTC

starpilot wrote: post #108

3JPLW wrote: post #3

Competition is great! I'm very glad that Apple has managed to exert some pressure on Microsoft here. I really don't think that this would have occurred otherwise.

Windows users consider the paid OS X upgrades blatant cash grabs for updates that should be free. They see it as charging for service packs.

That's because they don't use OS X. No service pack has ever made the kind of changes an OS X upgrade has, period. Anyone who spends time in both operating systems knows that's a ridiculous sentiment only spouted by the most ignorant users. I've also never heard it from someone who has ever actually used OS X for any real length of time.

Ignorant OS X users tend to consider Windows upgrades overpriced. That's not true either. It's just a different release strategy. Microsoft can't work on that kind of incremental release schedule without upsetting enterprise customers.

The only real difference is Apple has stuck with the original OS X UI and chosen to refine it, whereas Microsoft throws out the old skin for every release and designs a new one which makes updates seem more drastic. That's just the UI though. Behind the scenes, OS X has made as much progress between 10.0 and 10.8 as Windows has between XP and 8.

Re: Windows 8 Pro Upgrade to cost $39.99

#206

Post by hcurtiss » Wed, Jul 04, 2012, 7:26 PM UTC

NonEUCitizen wrote: post #176

nnnnni wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The number one thing is to make sure that all of the software is compatible without having to jump through a bunch of hoops. Law firms are notorious for using OLD software.

Are law firms still using WordPerfect ?

I can't say my knowledge is global, but in the US I'm fairly comfortable saying no law firm of any consequence still uses WordPerfect.

Re: Windows 8 Pro Upgrade to cost $39.99

#207

Post by rbanffy » Wed, Jul 04, 2012, 9:53 PM UTC

jpxxx wrote: post #198

rbanffy wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OK, but once you start your copy process, it should be straightforward.

What happens if the stream is interrupted? How long do you wait for it to start? When do you tell the user? What do you tell the user? What options do you give them? Do they even care? What if the disk you're writing to disappears? What if you're doing multiple files but only one of them fails? What if power cuts in the middle of a transfer? What if the destination directory gets renamed? What if the destination volu…

Shouldn't all these problems be dealt with at the filesystem level? I mean, if your filesystem browser needs to be aware of file indexing and anti-malware, you are doing it very wrong.